Anaesthesia of three young grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) for fracture repair

Three young grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) were presented separately for fracture repair to the veterinary teaching hospital of University College Dublin. The seals were premedicated with a combination of pethidine, midazolam and atropine; anaesthesia was induced with propofol via the front flipper vein and maintained with sevoflurane or isoflurane in oxygen. One of the seals did not breathe spontaneously after anaesthesia; a cardiac arrest, resulting in death, occurred after several hours of mechanical ventilation. Post-mortem examination revealed a severe lungworm infestation and parasitic pneumonia in this animal. The two other seals recovered uneventfully from anaesthesia

Find the weakest link. A comparison between demographic, genetic and demo-genetic metapopulation extinction times

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>While the ultimate causes of most species extinctions are environmental, environmental constraints have various secondary consequences on evolutionary and ecological processes. The roles of demographic, genetic mechanisms and their interactions in limiting the viabilities of species or populations have stirred much debate and remain difficult to evaluate in the absence of demography-genetics conceptual and technical framework. Here, I computed projected times to metapopulation extinction using (1) a model focusing on the effects of species properties, habitat quality, quantity and temporal variability on the time to demographic extinction; (2) a genetic model focusing on the dynamics of the drift and inbreeding loads under the same species and habitat constraints; (3) a demo-genetic model accounting for demographic-genetic processes and feedbacks.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Results indicate that a given population may have a high demographic, but low genetic viability or vice versa; and whether genetic or demographic aspects will be the most limiting to overall viability depends on the constraints faced by the species (e.g., reduction of habitat quantity or quality). As a consequence, depending on metapopulation or species characteristics, incorporating genetic considerations to demographically-based viability assessments may either moderately or severely reduce the persistence time. On the other hand, purely genetically-based estimates of species viability may either underestimate (by neglecting demo-genetic interactions) or overestimate (by neglecting the demographic resilience) true viability.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Unbiased assessments of the viabilities of species may only be obtained by identifying and considering the most limiting processes (i.e., demography or genetics), or, preferentially, by integrating them.</p

A retrospective study of macropod progressive periodontal disease ("lumpy jaw") in captive macropods across Australia and Europe: using data from the past to inform future macropod management

Macropod Progressive Periodontal Disease (MPPD) is a well-recognised disease that causes high morbidity and mortality in captive macropods worldwide. Epidemiological data on MMPD are limited, although multiple risk factors associated with a captive environment appear to contribute to the development of clinical disease. The identification of risk factors associated with MPPD would assist with the development of preventive management strategies, potentially reducing mortality. Veterinary and husbandry records from eight institutions across Australia and Europe were analysed in a retrospective cohort study (1995 to 2016), examining risk factors for the development of MPPD. A review of records for 2759 macropods found incidence rates (IR) and risk of infection differed between geographic regions and individual institutions. The risk of developing MPPD increased with age, particularly for macropods >10 years (Australia Incidence Rate Ratio (IRR) 7.63, p < 0.001; Europe IRR 7.38, p < 0.001). Prognosis was typically poor, with 62.5% mortality reported for Australian and European regions combined. Practical recommendations to reduce disease risk have been developed, which will assist zoos in providing optimal long-term health management for captive macropods and, subsequently, have a positive impact on both the welfare and conservation of macropods housed in zoos globally

The politics of protest in newspaper campaigns: dissent, populism and the rhetoric of authenticity

Newspaper campaigns embody newspaper’ most emphatic claims to speak for ‘the people’, and as such are generally regarded as populist. However, they can be oppositional, engaging in dissent of one sort or another, and often assume a certain amount of political engagement with that dissent on the part of the audience. This article examines the potential of newspaper camapigns to facilitate the political engagement of citizens through the politics of protest. It draws on qualitative analysis of seven campaigns that ran in the Scottish press between 2000 and 2005, and semi-structured interviews with relevant journalists. The distinction between legitimate protest and manipulative populism is made in terms of: (a) the rhetoric and strategies of political representation, participation and influence and (b) the construction of political legitimacy in terms of the public interest and the moral authority of the ‘victim’. It is argued that populist impulses dominate, driving a tendency to use discourses of emotional authenticity and offence to legitimise demands for a plebiscitary response to popular of ‘victim’ preference and to close down controversy and debate, with the principal objective marketing the newspaper as an influential community champion

The TALE Class Homeobox Gene Smed-prep Defines the Anterior Compartment for Head Regeneration

Planaria continue to blossom as a model system for understanding all aspects of regeneration. They provide an opportunity to understand how the replacement of missing tissues from preexisting adult tissue is orchestrated at the molecular level. When amputated along any plane, planaria are capable of regenerating all missing tissue and rescaling all structures to the new size of the animal. Recently, rapid progress has been made in understanding the developmental pathways that control planarian regeneration. In particular Wnt/beta-catenin signaling is central in promoting posterior fates and inhibiting anterior identity. Currently the mechanisms that actively promote anterior identity remain unknown. Here, Smed-prep, encoding a TALE class homeodomain, is described as the first gene necessary for correct anterior fate and patterning during planarian regeneration. Smed-prep is expressed at high levels in the anterior portion of whole animals, and Smed-prep(RNAi) leads to loss of the whole brain during anterior regeneration, but not during lateral regeneration or homeostasis in intact worms. Expression of markers of different anterior fated cells are greatly reduced or lost in Smed-prep(RNAi) animals. We find that the ectopic anterior structures induced by abrogation of Wnt signaling also require Smed-prep to form. We use double knockdown experiments with the S. mediterranea ortholog of nou-darake (that when knocked down induces ectopic brain formation) to show that Smed-prep defines an anterior fated compartment within which stem cells are permitted to assume brain fate, but is not required directly for this differentiation process. Smed-prep is the first gene clearly implicated as being necessary for promoting anterior fate and the first homeobox gene implicated in establishing positional identity during regeneration. Together our results suggest that Smed-prep is required in stem cell progeny as they form the anterior regenerative blastema and is required for specifying anterior cell fates and correct patterning

Brief psychological therapies for anxiety and depression in primary care: meta-analysis and meta-regression

Psychological therapies provided in primary care are usually briefer than in secondary care. There has been no recent comprehensive review comparing their effectiveness for common mental health problems. We aimed to compare the effectiveness of different types of brief psychological therapy administered within primary care across and between anxiety, depressive and mixed disorders

Limitations of Gene Duplication Models: Evolution of Modules in Protein Interaction Networks

It has been generally acknowledged that the module structure of protein interaction networks plays a crucial role with respect to the functional understanding of these networks. In this paper, we study evolutionary aspects of the module structure of protein interaction networks, which forms a mesoscopic level of description with respect to the architectural principles of networks. The purpose of this paper is to investigate limitations of well known gene duplication models by showing that these models are lacking crucial structural features present in protein interaction networks on a mesoscopic scale. This observation reveals our incomplete understanding of the structural evolution of protein networks on the module level

Structure and evolution of the gorilla and orangutan growth hormone loci

In primates, the unigenic growth hormone (GH) locus of prosimians, expressed primarily in the anterior pituitary, evolved by gene duplications, independently in New World Monkeys (NWM) and Old World Monkeys (OWMs)/apes, to give complex clusters of genes expressed in the pituitary and placenta. In human and chimpanzee, the GH locus comprises five genes, GH-N being expressed as pituitary GH, whereas GH-V (placental GH) and CSHs (chorionic somatomammotropins) are expressed (in human and probably chimpanzee) in the placenta; the CSHs comprise CSH-A, CSH-B and the aberrant CSH-L (possibly a pseudogene) in human, and CSH-A1, CSH-A2 and CSH-B in chimpanzee. Here the GH locus in two additional great apes, gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) and orangutan (Pongo abelii), is shown to contain six and four GH-like genes respectively. The gorilla locus possesses six potentially expressed genes, gGH-N, gGH-V and four gCSHs, whereas the orangutan locus has just three functional genes, oGH-N, oGH-V and oCSH-B, plus a pseudogene, oCSH-L. Analysis of regulatory sequences, including promoter, enhancer and P-elements, shows significant variation; in particular the proximal Pit-1 element of GH-V genes differs markedly from that of other genes in the cluster. Phylogenetic analysis shows that the initial gene duplication led to distinct GH-like and CSH-like genes, and that a second duplication provided separate GH-N and GH-V. However, evolution of the CSH-like genes remains unclear. Rapid adaptive evolution gave rise to the distinct CSHs, after the first duplication, and to GH-V after the second duplication. Analysis of transcriptomic databases derived from gorilla tissues establishes that the gGH-N, gGH-V and several gCSH genes are expressed, but the significance of the many CSH genes in gorilla remains unclear

Systematic review of the relationship between family history and lung cancer risk

We performed a systematic review of 28 case–control, 17 cohort and seven twin studies of the relationship between family history and risk of lung cancer and a meta-analysis of risk estimates. Data from both case–control and cohort studies show a significantly increased lung cancer risk associated with having an affected relative. Risk appears to be greater in relatives of cases diagnosed at a young age and in those with multiple affected family members. Increased lung cancer risk was observed in association with an affected spouse and twin studies, while limited, favour shared environmental exposures. The limitations of the currently published epidemiological studies to infer genetic susceptibility are discussed

Strengths and Weaknesses of Immunotherapy for Advanced Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer: A Meta-Analysis of 12 Randomized Controlled Trials

Background: Lung cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer death worldwide. Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for approximately 85 % of all lung cancers. Immunotherapy has yielded no consistent benefit to date for those patients. Assessing the objective efficacy and safety of immunotherapy for advanced NSCLC patients will help to instruct the future development of immunotherapeutic drugs. Methodology and Principal Findings: We performed a meta-analysis of 12 randomized controlled trials including 3134 patients (1570 patients in the immunotherapy group and 1564 patients in the control group) with histologically confirmed stage IIIA, IIIB, or IV NSCLC. The analysis was executed with efficacy end points regarding overall survival (OS), progressionfre